Biden: Afghanistan Policy ‘Going to Work’

Are we losing the war in Afghanistan? In an EXCLUSIVE interview on “This Week,” Vice President Biden insisted that “it’s too early to make a judgment,” but that the Afghanistan policy of the United States is “going to work.”

“We still believe that the policy that the military signed onto, put together initially, signed onto, is, in fact, going to work,” Biden told anchor Jake Tapper. The Vice President then explained what “work” means. “We are making considerable progress against al Qaeda, which is our primary target. We’re taking out significant numbers of the leadership in al Qaeda. And we are, in the process, which is painfully slow and difficult, of training up Afghani forces in order to put them in a position they can deal with their own insurgents.”

“There is, for the first time now, a real attempt and a policy of trying to figure out how to reconcile those in the Taliban who are doing it for the pay, who are not the Mullah Omars of the world, into the government of Afghanistan,” Biden said.

But, he added a big caveat: “All of this is just beginning. And we knew it was going to be a tough slog. But I think it’s much too premature to make a judgment [of how the U.S. is faring] until the military said we should look at it, which is in December.”

“It’s too early to make a judgment,” Biden told Tapper. “We don’t even have all the troops of the so-called surge in place yet. That won’t happen until August.”